


A God Among Men (or so It May Seem)

by LongTime_Lurker_PartTime_Writer



Category: Battle Spirits Series (Anime)
Genre: (sort of), Burning Soul is how I got into the anime fandom don't @ me, I feel like if I met Kenshin IRL there's a good chance I'd hate him, I imported this from Word and AO3 keeps messing up the formatting, I mean yeah he's badass but he's still arrogant, I think about this way too much and this isn't even my most recent hyperfixation, Kenshin Shirogane's God Complex™, Unreliable Narrator, You won't hurt my feelings if you don't read it, don't force yourself to read if you don't care for this show, so I have to keep going back and fixing it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:46:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28420086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LongTime_Lurker_PartTime_Writer/pseuds/LongTime_Lurker_PartTime_Writer
Summary: No matter how many people he has backing him, there are still times that Kenshin can’t help but feel that he hasn’t done enough to earn the title “God of War”. His loss to Yukimura further solidifies this concept. At the same time, he hates how glad he is that he isn’t the one carrying the weight of the world anymore.





	A God Among Men (or so It May Seem)

**Author's Note:**

> A character study of sorts of Kenshin Shirogane from Burning Soul. He's hardly my favorite character in the show, but he gives off such mixed vibes that I felt like I just had to write out my thoughts to see if I could wrap my head around his character. There's probably still a bit that I haven't covered, so I'd be curious to see what you think of him in the comments– just try to keep the discussion civil, please.

Kenshin Shirogane prided himself in his near-flawless strategies and air-tight defenses in battle. It was hard not to when people all over the nation advertised him as a near-perfect being who effortlessly brought even the toughest of foes to their knees. 

So when the likes of Dairokuten Maou rose up, Kenshin found that he felt threatened for the first time in many years. The feeling was so foreign to him that it didn’t register to him at first, but once it did, he immediately chastised himself. 

Upon hearing of the National Tournament, the God of War knew exactly what his mission was. Defeat Dairokuten Maou and finally bring this era of senseless violence and war-mongering to an end. 

Of course, he knew that the road to victory would be a long one. Even making it to the finals, while hardly a difficult task, would mean facing many different people, people that didn’t always see eye-to-eye with him, people who had their own ideas about how Battle Spirits should be enjoyed. Under more peaceful circumstances, Kenshin would have been fine with agreeing to disagree, but the looming threat of a dictatorial society in the near-future brought about a sense of urgency. If anyone was to step up to the challenge, it had to be him. That was his mission, and he couldn’t afford to fail. 

He kept that belief up until the quarter-finals. His opponent was Yukimura Rekka. Though he was truly a prodigy for his young age, and a formidable opponent at that, Kenshin knew he didn’t have what it took to rule the world. How could someone that young possibly understand what all goes into overseeing the operations of what was essentially, at that point, a rather large chunk of the nation? Naturally, the so-called God of War had to come out on top, right? 

But that wasn’t the way that things played out. 

He lost. 

The famed, highly-esteemed, almost _worshipped_ White-WingedGod of War lost. That hasn’t happened for the longest time– not once since he had earned his title did Kenshin face defeat. 

That in of itself wasn’t even the most humiliating aspect of his defeat. Hearing his opponent so openly disrespect his mission, framing his actions as comparable to that of Dairokuten Maou’s, made his blood boil. The nature of his accusations was so dishonorable, so sacrilegious, so _blasphemous-_ it was akin to denying the existence of a prophet after witnessing him perform a miracle. 

Almost as soon as the idea came to him, he found himself having second thoughts. Was that how he thought of himself? A prophet? Would his god want him exercising the power he would have earned from winning the tournament in such a controlling manner? What if Yukimura was right? If he was... 

...then that would mean that Kenshin’s mission was practically meaningless. He would have become the very thing he swore to destroy, and then what? The hope all his supporters held out that he would be their savior would turn first to disappointment and then it would quickly snowball into bitter ire. He would have no-one left, not even Kagetora and Kagekatsu. Whatever peace he may have achieved would be extremely short-lived before civil war consumed the nation once more, perhaps leaving the nation even more divided than before. 

The thought of such a catastrophe being all his fault weighed down on him a little more than he would have liked to admit. So much so, in fact, that the walk of shame back to his team’s waiting room seemed to take eons, with every bit of his body feeling like lead. Despite that, from an outsider’s perspective, it would have appeared as though the White-Winged God of War was taking his loss with as much grace and elegance as what befitted his title. Though Kenshin had lost a great deal of his pride, it wasn’t completely stripped off of him; as such, he had to carefully preserve whatever remained so that there was at least a sliver of hope that he could return to his former glory. 

Any intrusive thoughts attempting to disillusion him of such a thing were silenced once Kenshin saw his comrades running for him, asking if he had been hurt from the fall and if he was alright. Some of the uncomfortable weight from before lifted itself off from his shoulders, although the thought of what could have been still lingered, reminding him that maybe Yukimura did the right thing. Maybe Kenshin could place some of his faith in the fiery young man after all. Said young man was currently celebrating his victory by high-fiving and cheering alongside his younger companions and even tousling one’s hair. 

_Not just companions_ , Kenshin corrected himself, _friends._ Seeing how they all interacted with one another, all with smiles on their faces, just enjoying each other’s company without a care in the world, it brought about yet another feeling that Kenshin thought he had left behind in his youth: loneliness. The sight reminded him that even with people as close to him as Kagetora and Kagekatsu, he still had yet to truly experience companionship. At most, the two of them were protégés. 

As he turned to face them and reassure them that everything was fine, he willed away the negative emotions stirring inside him once more and told himself that from then on, things would be different. 

He felt sick thinking of the possibility of driving away the two most important people in his life. No amount of status or power was worth their lives... especially not if that power was in the hands of the hands of somebody like Dairokuten Maou. The sick feeling increased twofold at the thought of what he might do to them, either directly or indirectly. 

Kenshin turned over his shoulder to spare one last glance at Yukimura and sent him a silent prayer. 

_Please, if it comes down to you and Dairokuten Maou... please win._

**Author's Note:**

> This was a lot shorter than I originally thought it was going to be, but one day I was just reading over my progress for this story and then I sort of realized "hey, I kind of like the way this ended so imma just leave it be". Then I let it sit in my Fanfiction folder for at least a couple months because I couldn't build up the courage to post it, but here I am now!
> 
> Also, if you want to know how to indent text in your works, then I found this tutorial since I know pretty much nothing about coding: https://www.joanielspeak.com/2018/12/27/indenting-text-on-ao3/


End file.
